Militarism, Hunting, Imperialism

The late Victorian and Edwardian officer class viewed hunting and big game hunting in particular, as a sound preparation for imperial warfare. For the imperial officer in the making, the blooding hunting ritual was a visible hallmark of stirling martial masculinity. Sir Henry Newbolt, the period poet of subaltern self-sacrifice, typically considered hunting as essential for the creation of a masculine sporting spirit necessary for the consolidation and extension of the empire. Hunting was seen as a manifestation of Darwinian masculinity that maintained a pre-ordained hierarchical order of superordinate and subordinate breeds. Militarism, Hunting, Imperialism examines these ideas under the following five sections: martial imperialism: the self-sacrificial subaltern blooding the middle class martial male the imperial officer, hunting and war martial masculinity proclaimed and consolidated martial masculinity adapted and adjusted. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.